Postgame: Montreal

For one night, all was well for the Crew. Doubly so for Bernardo Anor, whose two-goal
performance led the home team to a 2-1 comeback win against Montreal.

Afterward, there was lots of talk about breaking the Crew’s recent run of play – 16 games with
just one win, only the second such streak in Crew history. But as I talked to defender Chad Barson
about Anor’s outburst, he offered an interesting point about the Crew’s attack.

“Sometimes the goals just dry up a little bit,” he said. “Sometimes you’re just not taking as
many chances as you need to in a game. Bernardo tonight, the goals came from distance and taking
opportunities. You’re not always just going to be able to walk the ball into the back of the net.
When guys start taking shots from far out and they’re quality shots, it starts to open up the
defense and makes them step out and opens things up behind. Credit to Bernardo – two incredible
goals.”

That they were. Of the Crew’s 21 goals entering the game, only three had come from outside the
penalty area. Both of Anor’s blasts tonight came from distance and generated some much-needed
positive momentum.

“Both of them, the more we try, the more chances we’re going to create,” Anor said. “We’ve got
to keep shooting. The more we shoot, the more space we open and then we can create and play in more
different areas. But if we never shoot the ball, the space is always going to be compact and too
predictable for the other team.”

For the Crew, tonight marked the first time it scored more than one goal since a 3-2 loss at
Toronto on May 31 – a span of six games. It was the fourth time the Crew had scored multiple goals
in the last 17 games.

It was also the first time Anor had scored since March 22, which was also a two-goal
performance. He has four goals this season and 10 for his career in 62 appearances.

“We don’t want him to be like that,” he said. “Honestly, we have conversations with Bernie
because we think he’s a fabulous player and we see so much potential in him, so much ability in
him. The message ot Bernie is, ‘Bernie, you could be doing this type of stuff every single week.
Week in and week out.’ He has virtually all the tools to be a top-level soccer player. I don’t want
him to be the streaky Bernardo Anor. I want him to be the consistent and the threatening Bernardo
Anor on a consistent basis.”

How do you bring that out?

“It’s work,” Berhalter said. “It’s working with him all the time, on the field, off the field,
getting him to believe that he has that quality.”

And asked whether either goal was more enjoyable than the other, Anor said, “Both of them.
Seriously, having those two shots on goal and putting them in the net is very nice. I appreciate
that I was able to pull it off.”

The grindAfter Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City, Crew captain Michael Parkhurst said the
Crew needed to find a way to win some ugly games. That came after the Crew had allowed the winning
goal in the 93rd minute.

Tonight, Parkhurst said this type of win was more beneficial to the Crew than a blowout would
have been.

“I think we actually get more benefit out of a win like this than if we had come out and won 3-0
or 4-0,” he said. “It brings a team together when you have to grind out a win like that, especially
the way things have been going for us lately. They score on pretty much their only chance in the
first half and it’s great that we came back and Bernie had two great goals.”

It was a point Berhalter had mentioned postgame as well when asked about the Crew having to hang
on after taking the lead in the 75th minute.

“That could’ve been a bigger win than if you would’ve won 3-0 for what it does for the group to
have to grind that out at the end of the game,” he said. “It wasn’t pretty. Montreal was throwing a
lot of numbers forward, a lot of long balls into the box and we stayed strong. That’s a good effort
by the group.”

No TrappWith vice captain Wil Trapp serving a one-game suspension after earning two yellow cards
Wednesday night, Berhalter started Kevan George in his place.

Although Trapp has consistently been getting forward more often in recent games, George
primarily stayed home and helped the Crew’s center backs. By doing so, it allowed outside backs
Waylon Francis and Barson to regularly join the Crew attack.

“Montreal does a great job in offensive transition,” Berhalter said. “(Jack) McInerney and
(Marco) Di Vaio stay very far apart, so if you’re staying with your two center backs it’s very
difficult to mark them because they’re so far apart and the width of the field gets stretched. Our
normal game plan, it’s no secret we like to get our backs forward at all times and put a lot of
crosses in and a lot of pressure on the defense. But what that means is you’re going to leave
yourself vulnerable, and we were trying to minimize that by having Kevan kind of stay and keep a
middle presence so the center backs could split a little wider.”

That plan also put a little more on goalkeeper Steve Clark’s shoulders, and he responded with
arguably his best performance of the season. Berhalter said the staff named Clark the man of the
match despite Anor’s brace.

“He was huge,” Barson said of Clark. “Without him, we probably don’t win that game. He made some
huge saves to keep us in the game. You need to score goals to win, but you also can’t give up
goals. When Steve is on his game, it really helps us out.”

ForwardsWith Jairo Arrieta out with a hamstring injury, Berhalter essentially started Federico
Higuain at forward Wednesday night before bringing Adam Bedell on at halftime as a target forward.
Tonight, Bedell earned his first start in MLS play and nearly came up with his second career goal
in the 30th minute when he got on the end of an Ethan Finlay cross but had his attempt saved by
Evan Bush.

Bedell was replaced by Aaron Schoenfeld in the 67th minute, and as he jogged onto the field
Schoenfeld continued his run and got on the end of a Higuain corner kick. His header hit the post,
but he later assisted on Anor’s game-winning goal and otherwise acquitted himself well after an
impressive stay with USL Pro affiliate Dayton.

“That was great, right? What a substitution that was,” Berhalter said of Schoenfeld. “Adam had a
fantastic week. He put a lot of energy into the week and we felt he was running out of gas. I was
pleased with how he performed as well. We thought he was running low so we brought Aaron in. Very
similar players. Aaron’s a little bit more mobile but he’s big and aggressive and I thought he did
a good job. He hasn’t been with this group playing very much and he did a good job.”

ConcedingBerhalter said after the game that there was a sense of “here we go again” when the Crew
allowed the first goal of the game tonight. After snuffing out a Montreal attack, Crew defender
Michael Parkhurst brought the ball up the left sideline and sent a pass toward the middle of the
field that was intercepted by a streaking Justin Mapp.

Suddenly on the break, the Impact midfielder fed the ball upfield to forward Marco Di Vaio, who
took possession on the edge of the Crew’s penalty area. After making contact with Crew defender
Giancarlo Gonzalez, Di Vaio retained possession and shifted his way around Gonzalez to find an
opening on goal.

With George also in the area but not in position to make a play on the ball, Di Vaio fired low
and beat Crew goalkeeper Steve Clark to the far post for his fourth goal of the season.

“The goal, we lost the ball in a bad spot,” Berhalter said. “We gave the ball up in our buildup
and I see that as a counter opportunity. You’re always working on closing down the ball and putting
pressure on the ball. That’s a very important aspect of our game. If we’re back in our defensive
third we want to aggressively pressure the ball. We don’t want to let them be able to play through
us, and at times tonight they did play through us. I think the ball pressure had a lot to do with
it.”

Quotable“The guys needed (the win). They needed a win for their confidence. Guys were down on
themselves, down on their performance and they needed that to validate it. It is big, but you’re
not going to get me to say it was bigger than other ones because it’s not. We move forward and we
focus on next week.” – Berhalter